Yes, “Mary’s a Grand Old Name!” Although it just didn’t seem right! As petite as Mary was, she loved food. Maybe her secret was she gave much more food away than she ate. At Christmas time, since she didn’t drive, she would have us go to the local pharmacy to buy six or eight boxes of Russell Stover candy to give away as gifts. Of course, she didn’t have to ask a second time because we always received at least one box. Several times after Mary died, Barb and I bought a box of Russell Stover candy at Christmas for each of our boys in remembrance of Mary.
Next at Christmas came the four pound wheels of baby Swiss cheese, which we also loved. Usually, she would have an extra wheel stashed away for us when we finished our wheel. But,the “piece de resistance” was her homemade brown edge cookies. She spent hours upon hours in her kitchen making an abundance of them. We not only received a tin of perfect ones, but we also hoped Mary would have a lot of “rejects”; Mary would only give the culls, those that did not pass her inspection, to us.
Another memory involving food was the Farmers’ Market. Every so often, she would ask us to load our kids in the car, pick her up and go to the market on a Saturday. She knew we would do this for nothing, but she insisted on giving each of the boys a dollar for buying donuts or whatever they wanted. She also gave Barb and me a 10 dollar bill (which was huge to us, not having much disposable income). Most of the time we spent the bulk of the money on fresh rolls, tomatoes, meat and cheese and had a feast for lunch.
But the best was yet to come… The five foot tall dinners! As soon as each of our three sons reached the height of five feet (the same as Mary’s height), she treated the whole family to a Friday night dinner at the Top of the Barclay restaurant on City Line Avenue, close to the boarder of Philadelphia. This was far more exquisite than Mickey D’s or even Denny’s (where we went on occasion). Once again, it was time for all of us to get dressed up in our fancy duds to celebrate.
My favorite entree was veal Parmesan, followed by a dessert of a frozen eclair. Fortunately, Mary must have either had double vision or just thought we had a slew of kids because I’m sure she took us there way more than three times. Several years after Mary died, I was reading the newspaper on a Saturday morning and saw that the Top of the Barclay was closing and would be serving their last meal that night. I quickly gathered all our troops together, and we had one last, wonderful dinner at the restaurant in honor of Mary. We had a great time and spoke much with the owners of the restaurant as they made their way to each of the tables, as we told them about our experiences coming there with Mary.
Mary was always associated with good food. However, one day Barb and I were out in the car with her in the late 1980s and she wanted to experience a McDonald’s McDLT. You may remember, the hot and cold ingredients for the burger were packaged separately in a specially designed two-sided Styrofoam container. The consumer was then expected to finalize preparation of the sandwich by combining the hot and cool sides just prior to eating (Note: An advertisement sung by Jason Alexander, of Seinfeld fame, for the McDLT in the 1980s appears at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTSdUOC8Kac). This was probably the first and last McDLT Mary ever had, because with the sauces on it, she could not keep the top bun from sliding off the bottom bun. It was a mess, and so was Mary!
Mary was a dear friend. Once a friend of Mary, always a friend of Mary. I can only think of one instance where this was not true. Her family had a professional for decades (we’ll call him Bill), one that was extremely trustworthy, or at least pretended to be. He impressed Mary every Christmas by giving her a poinsettia that was so big, it reminded me of a palm tree. One evening, Mary called me all flustered. She said that Bill stopped by to tell her that he and his wife were going on a trip to Europe and needed several thousand dollars from her for the trip. He also had brought a new will to leave with her for her to sign and give to him when he returned from Europe. Hummm, who do you think the first person was that was mentioned as a beneficiary in the will? Of course, Bill! Once Bill received his share, he listed several of his favorite charities that were named as beneficiaries. Thankfully, Mary, in her 80s, was still very sharp. She wasn’t sure what to do, but she knew to call someone for help. Bill was promptly fired, and Mary obtained an attorney to handle her financial matters. This experience is a reminder that all of us should be ready to protect our dear friends that are getting older (please stick with me, I’m getting there too)! There is always someone around that is unscrupulous enough to try to take advantage of them to add to their own gain.
Hopefully, I’ll “talk” with you next week for the final installment on the life of wonderful Mary!
Jeff Hall, of Honey Brook, contributes columns to Berks-Mont Newspapers.